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How many couples stand before a minister to recite vows while thinking to themselves, “This marriage will only be as stable as my behavior in the past 20 minutes”? We would be appalled if we suspected such a thing. Yet there are many Christians who call themselves the bride of Christ and think that dreadful thought every day. They have no assurance of salvation because they don’t understand it. Pulpits filled with moralizing—“Don’t do (insert behavior) and God will love you more”—leave pews filled with desperately tired and constantly struggling souls who long to live free of sin and yet despair every day.
As we understand that we are justified by the perfect obedience of Christ, we find life abundant and salvation secure. Because God is well pleased with Jesus, and we are in Him, we can rest assured. Our own righteousness is as filthy rags, and we never earn any right standing with God based on our works. Though it is hard for many Christians to grasp, our salvation lies entirely outside of us. The children of Israel had to learn this same lesson in the wilderness. Many had been bitten by serpents, but rather than going to each tent to treat the wounds, Moses raised a bronze serpent on a pole, promising life to those who looked on it. The venom could be neutralized only by something completely outside of the victims (Num. 21:4–9). How strange! Yet Jesus declared that just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up (John 3:14). Justification is totally outside ourselves.
Why belabor this point? Because sanctification is justification in action! We are no more able to secure our salvation than we were to earn it. We cannot divorce justification from sanctification. Scripture knows nothing of a God who saves conditionally or of an atonement that makes a partial payment. He who began a good work in us will see it through (Phil. 1:6). All whom the Father gives to the Son will (not “may” or “might”) come, and those who come will not be cast out (John 6:37).
Perhaps the strongest argument for eternal security in all Scripture is found in Romans 8:29–30: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” Paul is saying that all whom God chooses as the bride for His Son need not worry about their final end. Rather, they can live free from doubt, exulting in the goodness and mercy of a Savior and High Priest who ever lives to make intercession for them (Heb. 7:25)! What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.